Safeway, Giant Food workers reach tentative deal with management

Hanah Cho, The Baltimore Sun

The union that represents 23,000 Giant Food and Safeway workers reached a tentative contract agreement with management late Wednesday, just days shy of Friday's deadline.

The details of the new contract were not released Thursday. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400 in Landover and Local 27 in Baltimore had been negotiating for a new deal since January.

Union leaders reported little progress in talks in recent days, but a tentative deal was reached around 11 p.m. Wednesday.

The current deal is set to expire March 31, but it will be extended until a vote scheduled for Tuesday.

"We look forward to ratifying the package on Tuesday that maintains and improves our members' wages, benefits and working conditions," said Tim Goins, Local 27's executive vice president.